Autobiography. The essential definition of pretentiousness, egoism, arrogance, boastfulness … autobiographical – the self-preening of an egotistical arse.
As I sit here and began this ‘opus’ of mine – hopefully, appropriately titled? I’m thinking about Peter Gabriel’s song, In Your Eyes. What does that say about my social anchor? Where do my social references originate?
The reality is that I’m actually listening to one of my favourite set of musicians – U2.
Dependent upon either the sacred or profane, nothing that is asserted about the history of Man can ever be complete without answering the question …. so, where did it all begin?
This is nothing new or radical of thought. Greater historical minds than mine have pondered that question. The lore-keepers and recorders of Time are extensive, generally well -known and well documented. The Masters have enquired and responded, each in their time. As a student of their works, all I have to add is but mere commentary in the annals of Time’s passage.
Feel free to apply labels as needed. If the eyes are, indeed, windows to the soul then one need to be prepared for a maelstrom. Man is simple; Men are not. History tells us so.
I’ve often thought that an auto-biography belongs to the ‘the self-delusional, self-important, pompous and self-aggrandising sort among men’; and, yet, here I am.
So, choose your weapon and stance carefully. Who is Man (or Who Am I?) is not open to question.
According to one’s choice of (insert your preferred or favourite) Source of Authority, that is a question that raises a host of questions about such things as Truth. Validity. Veracity. Bias, Independence and so forth. In the end, what it really amounts to is navel-gazing introspection. Show me another creature on planet Earth that gazes upon his world, choses to create a world of its own ‘within that reality’ then spends the rest of its existence questioning which of the ‘real or imagined’ worlds is in fact Reality?
I imagine that the last thing that goes through a bug’s head as it smashes into a autombile’s windshield at highway speed is its arse. The bug’s as real as the windshield (or vehicle) that it smashes into. Does the ‘grand designer’ notice or care that the bug ‘dies’ (among millions of other ‘bugs’) in such a manner and on a constant basis?
There are those who will want to interject about determinism, fatalism, fate, destiny …. ad nauseam. But in any imagined ‘verse’ the chronology of creation or ‘coming into being’ is dependent upon one constant – Time, the equaliser. And, if Time is the determinant of (past and present) events as related or recorded by Lore-Keepers (Historians) then, clearly, auto-biographers have lost sight of the purpose of Lore-Keeping: it’s not about the author. Rather, it should always be about the ‘world around you’. Perception is reality; and that requires documented evidence, unadorned, clinical and as unbiased as is possible.
I can also imagine and believe in both the scientific and the magical. The fantasy and the reality. If the world around me is an illusionary creation of my own, what does that then make me? Master of my domain? Big Bang or Creationism are but the skin of the onion that we perceive as reality.
Rationalism, for the most part, prevails when confronted by skeptical enquiries.
That, in itself, is not problematic; but it’s when reductive scepticism is applied to all thing and in all areas of life. The substitution of ‘feelings’ in place of ‘deductive reasoning’ has invariably led us – as a specie (remember, the rational ones?).
Accepting that biographies contain the kernels that may, potentially, become notable reference sources at either the macro or micro levels of human societies, their importance at a societal level is less clear (outside of their cultural contexts). The sacred or the profane are both dependent upon the dispensation of some external actor or factor.
This becomes increasingly clear in this Information Age of the 21st Century world where global information generation and collection has given wings to data-mining – the engine that drives most human activity since the Industrial Revolution of yore. It has been kicked into high-gear as humans discover or develop newer means of generating, gathering, processing, distributing (and monetizing) the aggregated bits and bytes of human activities.
This represents not a social revolution but rather an evolution.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (Gen 1:1) And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)
And, in other news, scientists, quantum physicists, continue to seek The Answer to the questions that surround the origin or initiation of The Big Bang. Who or what started the first spark?; If all things are indeed relative (as Einstein has mathematically shown) then once the initiator is discovered all else should become crystal clear.
Previously only darkness, null, a Void existed, no god exists. So, from whence did the first spark of light emerge? From what dark hole of nothingness did being and time originate? Is Dark Matter the source of Life?
Does it matter. one iota, in the Grand Scheme (Life) whether we are self-aware, sentient and individual entities. Does any of it mean anything more than a cosmic mote in the eye of the Creator/Initiator?
Reality is not itself a problem – it is what it is.
Problems arise when men attempt to define what reality is to All; and in so doing humans end up constructing alternative-realities that collide with what can be called The Collective Reality. If you can’t always get what you want, then, why not try and try again?
It says right there in the scriptures, … God created Man in his own image and likeness (Genesis 1:27); and I believe in both magic and science – both ‘godly’ sources of power.
Darwin observed, documented and then concluded that life on Earth evolves; that the fittest survives during the process. And, in the grand scheme of Life, Man has found himself sitting atop the Tree-of-Life. The food chain, if you like. God apparently gave some of its creations (by most accounts) dominion over the rest of his Creation. The question that is left to be answered is, what makes us so ‘special’ in the eyes of the creator..
Protagoras (he surely was not the first nor will he be the last) pointed out that ‘all is relative’; the veracity of which has been demonstrated by Einstein’s Theory of Relativity [ E=mc2 ]. Even if you believe in miracles, its sublimeness cannot be denied. Who are the Chosen Ones?
31/01/2022 19:09:11 -0500